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CHRISTIANNE Glossop, the Chief Veterinary Officer for Wales, spent a week in Ethiopia earlier this month to see at firsthand a bovine TB cattle vaccination trial. Ethiopia has some 53 million cattle and bovine TB poses a significant challenge. There is no national test and cull programme in Ethiopia, but work is underway to examine the efficacy of BCG vaccine in the field.

She explained that, in an earlier trial in Ethiopia, TB-free calves had been vaccinated with BCG and placed, together with unvaccinated control calves, in a herd with a high natural prevalence of bovine TB. The calves were tested throughout the course of the trial, before being culled and examined postmortem. A vaccine efficacy of between 60 and 70 per cent was recorded. Dr Glossop was visiting a second trial, which is now being conducted to see whether the results of the first trial are repeatable.

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